Weight

Mario's back throw speed differs depending on the weight of the character being thrown

Weight is a measurement of how much a character can resist knockback. Weight is one of several factors used in calculating the amount of knockback a character experiences. Characters with a higher weight (heavy) tend to suffer less knockback, and characters with a lower weight (light) tend to suffer more knockback, all other factors controlled.

Overview

Weight is in practice understood as how difficult it is to send a character flying away. In this sense, it is usually considered an advantage for a character to be heavy, as less knockback makes it more difficult to KO a character. Additionally, many throws take longer to execute on heavier characters, giving the opponent more time to properly react to throws and DI effectively. Because throwing heavier characters causes the throwing animation to continue longer once the target is let go, the viability of throw combos may be affected; for example, Mr. Game & Watch's down throw-to-down smash combo isn't guaranteed on heavier characters who don't tech the throw, the Ice Climbers's infinite chain grabs are more difficult to perform on heavyweights, and in Melee, Captain Falcon is not vulnerable to many of the up throw chain throws (such as from Marth) that the space animals are vulnerable to despite having equivalent falling speed.

Lighter characters have a few advantages. Weight-sensitive platforms such as those in Mushroom Kingdom and Rainbow Cruise fall slower while holding less weight, making them safer to use for lighter characters. Many combos are less effective on lighter characters because their higher received knockback makes it easier to escape - these combos include some of Fox's waveshine combos in Melee and King Dedede's chaingrab in Brawl, where characters below a certain weight usually receive enough knockback to escape. Finally, certain weight-based throws have hitboxes that appear for very short lengths of time, and if the target is very light, the animation may progress so quickly that the hitbox appears and vanishes in less than a frame without hitting -- this causes the lightest characters to take less damage, notably with Bowser's down throw in NTSC Melee and Link's down throw in Brawl, both of which miss their pre-throw hit on Jigglypuff.

Heavier characters tend to have stronger attacks, longer range, worse recovery, bigger hurtboxes, higher falling speed, and slower movement, while lighter characters tend to have weaker attacks, shorter range, better recovery, smaller hurtboxes, slower falling speed, and faster movement. However, this is a very loose correlation that many characters defy in some way - Samus is heavy but slow-falling, Wario is heavy but small and highly maneuverable, Zelda is medium-light with slow and strong attacks, and Falco is light with a very high falling speed and lackluster recovery.

In single player modes, sometimes unnaturally high weight is introduced to challenge the player, such as when fighting Metal Mario; this is often paired with additional flinch resistance, since even characters with infinite weight will still take knockback from any attack with a base knockback greater than 0.

Super Smash Bros. weight values

Source: [1]

These values use a different scale than the later games - heavier characters have lower numbers, representing a direct multiplier in the knockback formula. For comparison purposes, the equivalent value in the newer system is also listed.

JPN Rank Character Weight (coded) Weight (comparison) 1 Donkey Kong 0.84 138.095 2 Samus 0.92 117.391 3 Yoshi 0.93 115.054 4-5 Link 0.96 108.333 4-5 Captain Falcon 0.96 108.333 6-8 Mario 1 100.000 6-8 Luigi 1 100.000 6-8 Fox 1 100.000 9 Ness 1.1 81.818 10 Pikachu 1.16 72.414 11 Kirby 1.19 68.067 12 Jigglypuff 1.3 53.846

NA Rank Character Weight (coded) Weight (comparison) 1 Donkey Kong 0.83 140.964 2 Samus 0.92 117.391 3 Yoshi 0.93 115.054 4-5 Link 0.96 108.333 4-5 Captain Falcon 0.96 108.333 6-8 Mario 1 100.000 6-8 Luigi 1 100.000 6-8 Fox 1 100.000 9 Ness 1.1 81.818 10 Pikachu 1.16 72.414 11 Kirby 1.19 68.067 12 Jigglypuff 1.3 53.846

PAL Rank Character Weight (coded) Weight (comparison) 1 Donkey Kong 0.83 140.964 2 Link 0.9 122.222 3 Samus 0.92 117.391 4 Yoshi 0.93 115.054 5 Captain Falcon 0.96 108.333 6-8 Mario 1 100.000 6-8 Luigi 1 100.000 6-8 Fox 1 100.000 9 Ness 1.1 81.818 10 Pikachu 1.16 72.414 11 Kirby 1.19 68.067 12 Jigglypuff 1.3 53.846

Super Smash Bros. Melee weight values

Following are the characters in Super Smash Bros. Melee, ranked in order of heaviest to lightest. The Metal Box multiplies a character's base weight by 3, the Super Mushroom by 8/5ths, and the Poison Mushroom by 5/8ths.

Rank	Character	Weight (NTSC)	Weight (PAL)
n/a	Giga Bowser	140	140
1	Bowser	117	118
2	Donkey Kong	114	114
3 (NTSC) 4 (PAL)	Samus	110	110
4 (NTSC) 5 (PAL)	Ganondorf	109	109
5 (NTSC) 3 (PAL)	Yoshi	108	111
6-7	Captain Falcon	104	104
6-7	Link	104	104
8-10 (NTSC) 8-9 (PAL)	Dr. Mario	100	100
8-10 (NTSC) 8-9 (PAL)	Luigi	100	100
8-10 (NTSC) 10 (PAL)	Mario	100	98
11	Ness	94	94
12-14	Peach	90	90
12-14	Sheik	90	90
12-14	Zelda	90	90
15	Ice Climbers	88	88
16 (NTSC) 16-19 (PAL)	Marth	87	85
17-19 (NTSC) 16-19 (PAL)	Mewtwo	85	85
17-19 (NTSC) 16-19 (PAL)	Roy	85	85
17-19 (NTSC) 16-19 (PAL)	Young Link	85	85
20-21	Falco	80	80
20-21	Pikachu	80	80
22 (NTSC) 23 (PAL)	Fox	75	73
23 (NTSC) 22 (PAL)	Kirby	70	74
24-25	Jigglypuff	60	60
24-25	Mr. Game & Watch	60	60
26	Pichu	55	55

Super Smash Bros. Brawl weight values

This is a list of characters' weights in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Rank	Character	Weight
1	Bowser	120
2	Donkey Kong	116
3	Snake	113
4	King Dedede	112
5	Charizard	110
6	Ganondorf	109
7	Samus	108
8-9	Yoshi	107
8-9	Wario	107
10	R.O.B.	106
11	Ike	105
12-13	Captain Falcon	104
12-13	Link	104
14	Wolf	102
15-16	Lucario	100
15-16	Ivysaur	100
17	Mario	98
18	Luigi	97
19	Sonic	95
20-22	Ness	94
20-22	Lucas	94
20-22	Pit	94
23	Diddy Kong	93
24-25	Ice Climbers	92
24-25	Toon Link	92
26	Peach	90
27	Marth	87
28-29	Sheik	85
28-29	Zelda	85
30-31	Falco	82
30-31	Olimar	82
32	Zero Suit Samus	81
33	Fox	80
34-35	Meta Knight	79
34-35	Pikachu	79
36	Kirby	78
37-38	Mr. Game & Watch	75
37-38	Squirtle	75
39	Jigglypuff	68

Super Smash Bros. 4 weight values

This is a list of characters' weights in Super Smash Bros. 4. Currently, it is sourced from experimentation documented in this SmashBoards post, and is not yet confirmed via data extraction.

According to the game, weight is the base factor in determining how many powers can be equipped in Smash Run. There are other factors -- namely a character's speed -- so it is not a direct linear correlation, but as a general rule weight definitely carries a positive correlation: the higher the weight, the greater the number of powers.

Rank	Character	Weight	Power Limit
1	Bowser	128	29
2	Donkey Kong	122	27
3	King Dedede	119	28
4-5	Bowser Jr.	115	27
4-5	Charizard	115	27
6	Ganondorf	112	29
7	Samus	108	27
8-9	Wario	107	27
8-9	Ike	107	26
10	R.O.B.	106	26
11-13	Yoshi	104	26
11-13	Link	104	26
11-13	Captain Falcon	104	25
14-15	Shulk	102	25
14-15	Mega Man	102	25
n/a	Mii Fighter (heaviest)	102	25
n/a	Mii Fighter (default)	100	25
16	Lucario	99	25
17-18	Mario	98	25
17-18	Dr. Mario	98	25
19-20	Luigi	97	24
19-20	Villager	97	24
n/a	Mii Fighter (lightest)	97	25
21-23	Pit	96	24
21-23	Dark Pit	96	24
21-23	Wii Fit Trainer	96	24
24-26	Robin	95	24
24-26	Sonic	95	23
24-26	Pac-Man	95	25
27-28	Greninja	94	24
27-28	Ness	94	25
29-30	Toon Link	93	24
29-30	Diddy Kong	93	24
31-32	Palutena	91	23
31-32	Duck Hunt	91	23
33-34	Marth	90	23
33-34	Lucina	90	23
35	Peach	89	23
36-37	Zelda	85	22
36-37	Sheik	85	24
38-39	Falco	82	22
38-39	Little Mac	82	23
40	Zero Suit Samus	81	23
41	Meta Knight	80	22
42-44	Fox	79	24
42-44	Pikachu	79	23
42-44	Olimar	79	23
45	Rosalina	78	22
46	Kirby	77	21
47	Mr. Game & Watch	75	23
48	Jigglypuff	68	21

Notes

• According to Super Smash Bros. Melee's Blue Smash Trophy of Mario, his mass is the standard upon which other Smash fighters are measured. While this is true in NTSC Melee (having a weight of 100), the PAL version drops Mario's weight to 98, which is slightly below average. This has been carried over into future installments.
• In each game, the enemy team all have the same weight as Mario, despite each being based off characters of different weights.
  • However, one exception applies to the Female Wire Frame in Melee, who has a weight of 90. This is due to the development team copying Zelda's moveset over to the Female Wire Frame.
• In Brawl, Giga Bowser and Wario-Man are programmed to have weights of 400 and 130, respectively; however, they cannot be knocked back, so their weight only has an effect on certain stage elements (such as Rainbow Cruise's see-saw platforms).

References

• Brawl weight and falling speed calculations and explanation
• Brawl weight list and falling speed calculations
• Some character's weight with DI